tdoh262

Was planning on apply EA as it is one of my top choices, but now reading about strict EA decisions, i am wondering whether or not I should hold off till RD??

White Male
Competitive Public School (4.00 Weighted GPA but not in top 10%)
2070 SAT
690 CR 680 M 700 W

Honors/regular classes freshmen year but moved up to all honors sophomore year besides spanish
Junior year: AP US History 4, AP Lang & Comp 4, rest honors/ regular spanish
Senior Year: AP Biology, AP Government, honors physics, elective english, and introductory calc (not AP, but was on honors track til senior year)

Varsity Baseball 2 Letters (2 years JV)
Certified EMT-B
AAU travel baseball (summer and fall, compete in national tournaments)
Volunteer Camp Counselor 180 hours
Key Club 3 years
Relay for Life 3 years

Headmaster's List all 4 years
National Honor's Society
Scholar of the Social Sciences 11th grade (school award)

Excellent essay, solid LOR's
Want to try to get a walk-on tryout invite for baseball team
Intended major is for biology, pre-dental track

Thanks!

collegebound41

i wouldnt EA if i were you. Gpa and class rank are low. Why would you want to be a walk on tryout? Are you being scouted by other ACC schools?

scottj

Dear tdoh262 : Your SAT scores are firmly implanted in the second quartile of the admitted students profile. (You would need to have 700+ in various sections to break into the top quartile.) Further, your profile not being in the Top 10% of your graduating class places you outside of 80% of the admitted freshmen. Although your statistics are solid, these are calculated risks that you would have to assume in order to apply early admission. As has been said many times, if BC is your passion and top choice school, you will know it in your heart and not need to second guess your RD/EA decision.

The fact that you have "fallen off" an AP track in calculus will be noted as you have not taken the most competitive curriculum available to you.

Your sports background is solid however you are cautioned that before you think about being a varsity walk-on, you had best speak with the baseball coach. As a very competitive Division One school, Boston College will not permit walk-ons in many sports - although I cannot recall definitively, baseball is one of those sports.

Overall, it feels like your application is better suited for the regular decision pool not just based on academics, but the phrasing of your own text : "was planning on EA, but...", "one of my top choices" (not the top choice), "wondering", and perhaps misplaced expectations around sports.

tdoh262

Thanks for the quick replies, I am not being openly recruited (personal letters), just to the camps to various schools, so it's not like i am expecting baseball to be an influential factor in my decision, it is just an aside that if i can I will try-out. So I am basing my chances strictly academics and EC's. But thank you for your advice, math has never been my strong subject hence why i did not go AP this year and why my GPA is not higher (my only consistent B range grade). I think RD will be best for me now, because although I really like the school, I want to give myself the best chance to get accepted, rather than over-reaching doing EA.

scottj

Dear tdoh262 : Before leaving the discussion of NCAA Division One athletics, do you understand the commitment you are making to attempt to be part of such a program? The experience is significantly more intense than anything you will have seen in high school or with a premier baseball program.

If you are not currently showcasing in front of ACC-class coaches as part of your baseball commitment, it is unlikely that you have really been exposed to the time and personal requirements that will be placed onto you. The fact that you are attending revenue-generating camps as part of your activity, but not staying in touch with the resident coaches is a problem if you intend to play NCAA Division One baseball. This entire topic is much deeper than the two paragraphs allocated here.

It does not appear that you are getting good guidance for an athletic career at this point. If this is part of your college selection criteria, you likely need a major injection of focused effort in this space. Good luck.

tdoh262

Yes scottj I understand the massive committment D1 baseball is, I'm not completely clueless hah, however baseball is not part of my college selection criteria, because if i was trying to go to school solely for baseball it would be some D3 school that I am not looking for. My college choice is academics first, however if I have the opportunity to try out then I will, I'm not trying to say anything more than that.

So strictly academics, do i have a shot at RD?